Fence wire stretching and anchoring tool



Patented Mar. 30, I954 2,673,57 9 FENCE WIRE STRE'ICI%HING AND AN CHORING Felix H. Hollmig, Hondo, Tex. Application June 30, 1952, Serial No.296,468 Claims. (0]. 140-1235) This invention relates to a novel toolfor use in stretching strands of fence wire between fence posts and forsecurely anchoring the wire to the the fence wire.

Frequently fence wire anchoring staples are pulled out of fence postsand the fence wire is on staples of certain of the posts or due tolivestock pushing against the fence wire strands in a direction to causethe staples to be pulled from the fence post.

Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention toprovide a tool for stretching fence wire between fence posts and forsicannot be pulled from the fence post by the fence wire.

Another object of the invention is to provide a tool of extremely simpleconstruction wherein the aforementioned operations are accomplishedsimultaneously by a manual operation of the tool.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafterbecome more fully apparent from the following description of thedrawing, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, andwherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view partly in right of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially along aplane as indicated by the line 33 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing the tool and the partsengaged thereby after stretching and anchoring of a fence wire has beencompleted or substantially completed, and

on substantially the same plane as Figures 3 and 4t and illustratingonly a portion of the tool after completion of the anchoring andstretching operations.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, the novel fence wirestretching and anchoring tool in its entirety is designated generally Iand includes a fence post engaging abutment member, designated generally8, having an end wall 9 and corresponding top and bottom walls Ill andII, extending from the ends of the end wall tom walls In and II havecorresponding notched outer ends I 2, as clearly illustrated in Figures3 and. 4.

A feed screw 13 is provided with a crank l4 at one end thereof and has arestricted unthreaded stem I 6 extending from its opposite end. The stemI6 is rotatably disposed in a substantially central opening I! of theend wall 9. A bifurcated head I3 is detachably secured by a pin orfastening l9 to a distal end of the stem l5 and is disposed within theabutment mem her 8. A wire engaging member 2% is detachably mounted inthe head l8 between its furcations by a pin 2! which extends through thefurcations of the head 18 and through the wire engaging member 20. Saidmember 283 is preferably provided with an arcuate grooved outer surface22 around which a portion of a strand of wire is adapted to engage, aswill hereinafter be described.

The tool 1 also includes a wire pulling yoke 23 including anintermediate or bight portion 24 having a substantially centrallydisposed flanged threaded opening 25 through which the The yoke 23includes corresponding legs .25 and 2'! which project from the ends ofits bight portion 24 in outwardly diverging relationship to one another.Each of the legs 26 and 27 is provided with a series of longitudinallyspaced downwardly opening notches 28, all of which are inclined in adirection away from the free ends of said legs.

For the purpose of illustrating a preferred application and use of thetool I, a conventional fence post 29 is illustrated in the drawinghaving a plurality of strands of fence wire 30 extending transverselyacross said fence post, each of which may be anchored to the fence postin a conventional manner by a staple 35. It will be obvious that if apressure is exerted against the fence wires 30 in a direction fordisplacement of the fence Wires away from the portion of the post 29, towhich they are anchored by the staples 3!, that this will tend toextract the stapics from the fence post to thus disengage the fencewires from the fence post or at least loosen the staples sufficiently sothat the fence Wires will not be anchored thereby to the fence post. Thetool 1 functions not only to stretch and tension the fence wires 38 butalso to additionally anchor the fence wires so that a pressure thereoncannot extract or loosen the staples 3|.

To utilize the tool I for anchoring each fence wire to each fence postand for stretching the fence wires 30 between adjacent fence posts, ashort strand of anchoring wire 32 has its intermediate portion passedthrough the head IB and disposed in engagement with the grooved portion22 of the wire engaging member 20. The ends of the anchoring wire 32 arethen wrapped or coiled as seen at 33 around one of the fence wires 39 atpoints spaced from the staple 3| which anchors the fence wire *to'itheip'ost 29. so that the anchoring wire 32 extends around the post on theside thereof opposite the side engaged by the fence wire 30. It will beobvious that the intermediate portion of 'the anchoring wire 32 could bepositioned in engagement with the wire engaging member '20 after itsends are anchored by the coils 33 to the fence 'Wire' 39 by removingtherpin 2 and wire engaging member 2|! so that the member 23 could beinserted into engagement with the intermediate portion of the anchoringwire 32 and then placed-properly positioned in the head l8'to receivethe pin 2|. Assuming that the anchoring wire 32 has been secured to thefence wire 30 and is engaged by the member and further .assuming thatthe notched ends 12 of the-abutment-member walls 10' and l areinengagement with the post 29, as illustrated in Figure 3, the yoke 23which is disposed on the screw 13 with its intermediate portion 24adjacent the wall 9 is then ready to be engaged with the fence wire 3|].to be stretched and-anchored. Th s is accomplished by selected notches28 of the yoke legs 26 :and '2'! being positioned in engagement with thestrand 3U outwardly of the coils 33. With the tool 1 thus applied, asillustrated in Figure 3, the screw the operator engaging the crank M andthe stem I6 thereof revolved in the opening H. The :screw is revolved ina direction to cause the yoke 23 through its threaded engagement withthe :screw |3 to be moved outwardly and away from the abutment member 8.The yoke 23 is prevented from turning with the screw l3 by engagement ofits legs 26 and 21 with the fence wire 39. When the yoke 23 is thusdisplaced away from the abutment member'B, the legs 26 and 21 will exerta pullon the fence Wire 30 for pulling the fence wire from its {positionon Figure 3 and its dotted line position of Figure 4 to its full lineposition of Figure 4 or to itspo- .sition of Figure 5, so that the fencewire will partially engagearound the post 29 and will extend away fromthe post in inwardly offset relationship to the portion of the post towhich the fence wire is anchored by the staple 3|. .It will also bereadily apparent that as the wire is thus pulled around thepost 29 bythe yoke 23 for stretching the wire between the post 29, against whichthe tool 1 engages and the two 'posts, not shown, adiacent thereto, thatthe intermediate portion of the anchoring wire 32 will be simultaneouslytwisted by rotation of the feed screw I3 and its head 18, to form atwisted portion 34 in the anchoring wire 32 between the post.29 and thewire engaging member 20 and to form a loop 35 therebeyond in the portionof the wire engaged by the member 23. The twisted wire portion 34 thusformed exerts a pull on the end portions of the anchoring wire 32between the twist 34 and the coils 33 so that the fence wire 30isretained in its full line pOSi- |3 is manually revolved by her 20 sothat said member then revolved in the opposite place the yoke 23 backtoward tion of Figure 4 and in its position of Figure 5, after havingbeen stretched by the tool 1, by the anchoring wire 32. The anchoringwire 32 thus prevents the portion of the fence wire 30 which engages thepost 29 from being displaced away from said post and thereby preventsthe staple 3| from being extracted from the post or loosened by apressure exerted on the fence wire. The anchoring wire32 additionallyholds the fence wire under the tension which has been applied thereto bythe tool I to retain the fence wire properly stretched and tensioned.The pin 2| is then removed from the head I8 and mem- 20 can then be re-The screw I3 is direction to disthe abutment member 8 so that the legnotches 28 can be disengaged from the tensioned fence wire 30. The fencewire 30 is initially engaged selectively with moved from the wire loop35.

the notches 28 depending upon the diameter or cross sectional size ofthe fence 'post 29. It will be readily apparentthat each fence-wire 30may thus be stretched and anchored at each fence post 29 to which it isconnected by 'operation of the tool 1, as previously-described, and thatsuch operation simultaneously stretches a. fence wire and anchors it toa fence post. 'It will also be obvious that the staples 3| could beomitted if desired as the anchoring wires 32 will effectively retain thefence wires 39 properly secured and anchored to the fence post 29without the use of other securing means.

The size and shape of thefence wire engaging member 29 may be varieddepending upon the size of the loop 35 that it is desired to formtherein. A wire engaging member 20a of larger cross sectional size isillustrated in Figure'5, and it will be apparent that wire engagingmembers may be made of other'larger or smaller sizes.

Various other modifications and changes are likewise contemplated-andmay obviously be resorted to, without departing from the spirit or scopeof the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A wire stretching and anchoring tool compJising an abutment memberhaving one end adapted. to bear against a fence post, saidabutmentmember having an end wall at its opposite end, a feed screw having astem extending .inwardly through said end wall and journalled thereinand having a screw portion extending outwardly from said end wall, apulling yoke having an intermediate portion disposed outwardly of saidend wall through which the screw portion of said feed screw threadedlyextends, said yoke having legs projecting from said intermediate portionand adapted to straddle the fence post and detachably engage the fencewire on opposite sides of the fence post, means secured to the inner endof said stem and disposed on the inner side of said end wall and adaptedto detachably engage an intermediate portion of an anchoring wire theends of which are secured to the fence wire on opposite sides of thefence post, and means for revolving said feed screw in one direction todisplace the intermediate portion of the pulling yoke away from theabutment member to cause the yoke to exert a pull on the fence wire forpulling the fence wire partially around the fence post to tension thefence wire, said first mentioned means being revolved with the feed theslack created therein by the pull exerted on the fence wire by thepulling yoke for anchoring the fence wire partially around the post andfor maintaining the tension thereon applied to the fence wire by thepulling yoke.

2. A tool as in claim 1, said abutment member inclu ing top and bottomwalls projecting from said end wall and having notched free endsengaging the fence post, said first mentioned wire twisting means beingdisposed between said top and bottom walls and between the end wall andpost.

3. A tool as in claim 1, said first mentioned wire twisting meanscomprising a bifurcated head fixed to and projecting from said stemtoward the fence post, a wire engaging member disposed in said head andaround which the intermediate portion of the anchoring wire extends, anda pin extending through the furcations of said head and through saidwire engaging member and detach" ably disposed therein for detachablyconnecting the wire engaging member and anchoring wire to the head.

4. A tool as in claim 3, said abutment member having top and bottomwalls projecting from said end wall and provided with notched free endsadapted to bear against the fence post above and below the anchoringwire, and said head being loosely disposed in said abutment member beetween the post and said end wall and between the FELIX H. HOLLMIG.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 20Number Koch Dec. 28, 1948

